When hunting for diesel engines for boats or any industrial application you
can buy them at different duty ratings, i.e. continuous is designed to go
all day 24/7 until the next maintenance interval. These engines are under
continuous load, unlike cars which are rarely under full load, ( how often
do you drive around with your foot to the floor, vw vans an exception ; )
industrial engines tend to have much beefier valve trains and other
components. My 91 Syncro Westy drops dramatically in MPG beyond 60 mph, the
big factor with a van is the wind resistance, which goes up exponentially
with speed. I drove to NYC this fall and got around 18 mpg going east with
cargo inside packed to the roof ( yippee I thought I fixed something ) and
then on the return to Seattle with no cargo, I got 15 -16 mpg going into the
prevailing winds, so much for my tune up theory on mpg : (
-Wayne
>
> VW industrial engines (used to drive large generators, etc. are designed to
> run at 4K full time 24/7.  That's the most efficient engine speed/hp/fuel
> economy range.
>
> I recall this from many years ago when I had a squareback, so this spec was
> for a pancake motor.
>
> Karl Wolz
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Lunetta 1990 Vanagon GL" <BLun143222@AOL.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 8:45 AM
> Subject: Re: rpm@60
>
>
>> I also think running over 4000 rpm for any lenght is to much stress on
> this
>> eng not to mention on me. Thanks for the input.
>> Any one else have any rpm notes? John 1990 gl 2.1
>>